Page 9 of Twister

“Allison wants to invite her whole first-grade class,” he said, his voice panicked. “That’s like twenty-five kids, Sadie. What am I going to do with twenty-five kids?”

“Calm down, Master Chief. You are her dad. You can make the rules. First of all, tell her that she can only invite five kids. She will grumble but assure her that she’ll have a wonderful time and feel special, and that it’s not about the number of people invited but the quality of the experience.”

Jeff took a hard breath. “Okay, that sounds reasonable. Thank you. You’re a lifesaver.”

She had all the experience she needed with young children. She was the oldest of six, and she’d spent most of her young life handling children, especially her twin sisters, who were eleven years younger than she was. There always seemed to be babies in their household, but her mother could hardly cope with her brood. For as long as Sadie could remember, she was the one doing the majority of the work. She learned early to put herfamily’s needs ahead of her own, she had to give in order to get, even for a few hours off, and her parents were much more affectionate when she was compliant than not.

Sadie battled feelings of overextending herself and fatigue as she planned Allison’s party while repairing theMcClintock’spropeller system. She couldn’t seem to say no to anyone. She’d decided on a unicorn theme, but when she tried to order the cake, most bakeries needed more time. So, making a unicorn cake went on her list. She hauled herself out to do all the party shopping, including the food, and delivered all of the bags to the master chief’s house. He hid everything in his closet except the food that went to his fridge in the garage to keep Allison from knowing anything about the planning.

As the day of her birthday dawned, Sadie got up early on her day off and went over to the house to get everything ready. Master Chief Clayton had taken Allison out for a birthday breakfast, so Sadie did the decorating and prepared the food.

The party was a complete success. Allison was thrilled with everything, especially the activity: painting small treasure boxes and adding gems to them. Every little girl had treasures to keep. Allison was happy, and Master Chief Clayton was relieved.

When she went to work the following day, the master chief waylaid her before she could start on her most recent job.

“The commander wants to see you.”

She immediately went to the commander’s office, expecting to be given her orders for her next billet. When she entered, he said, “At ease. Take a seat, Tompkins.” Surprised at his request, she settled into one of the chairs in front of his desk. “First off, I want to commend you for theMcClintockjob. The captain wanted to make sure that I offered you his thanks for catching a potentially disastrous situation.”

“It was my pleasure. I loved rebuilding the hub.”

He nodded. “I’m adding my commendation to your file.” He leaned back and sighed. “I hate like hell to lose you, and I fought tooth and nail to keep you for another tour, but your orders have come through. You’re going to MDSU-2,” he growled, frowning. It was clear he wasn’t happy.

“Virginia. That’s great. My family lives in Norfolk.”

“That’s nice.” He pitched forward and set his forearms on the desk. “There’s a catch. We are aware you’re due a month’s leave, but before you take it, we want to offer you an opportunity to go to Bali, Indonesia for a salvage job.”

That’s not exactly what she had in mind. She was exhausted and looking forward to some major downtime. “I heard it was beautiful?—”

“Not so beautiful,” he said wearily, strain showing around his mouth. “We lost one of our divers to a violent act against the salvage operation.”

“Oh, no. Who?”

“Dylan Mercer.”

Sadie’s heart rolled over. “He was in my graduating class. What happened?” Dylan wasn’t exactly a close friend, even though Sadie had dated him during that time. Her eyes stung. She was sorry for his death, but it had nothing to do with mourning him.

“We don’t know yet. The CIA is doing their thing. I think you’ll be an excellent asset to this operation. You’re the best qualified we have. It’s going to be not only dangerous diving, but now we have this threat.”

“I understand, sir.” Could she really turn him down? She felt a weird resistance to that action. They sounded like they needed her and that filled a hollow well in her. Yet she was so darn tired.

“I had no doubt you’d be willing to go.”

She hated like hell to turn him down. Stalling, she asked, “What’s the job?”

“A World War II sub was lost in that area at the tail end of the war.”

“The USSKittiwake?” Her heart pounded and she worked at not reacting to this stunning news.

“You know your history. You have six hours before your flight leaves.”

“I’ll be ready,” she said. Her boss wouldn’t want to send her if he knew that her great-grandfather had gone down with that submarine. Her family had never gotten closure, especially her great-grandmother, who was still alive at ninety-seven. The thought of diving for her great-grandfather’s remains to give closure to her great-grandmother was nothing short of miraculous.

Danger or no danger, she was staying until that job was complete.

There wasno time for anything, as the sub took them immediately to their extraction point. The USSSean Hannigan, a destroyer, where they picked up a chopper to the Balabac Island military base in Palawan, Philippines, catching a C-130 back to the US. After the last forty-eight hours, Twister wouldn’t have minded a cushier plane, and he didn’t say that lightly.

The C-130 Hercules, a large, four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft owned and operated by the US Air Force, was basically a stripped-down cargo plane, large enough to fit whatever the military required. The beauty of this aircraft was it could be configured for many different missions, making it a versatile asset and able to perform a diverse number of operational missions in both peace and wartime situations, including airlift support, Antarctic ice resupply, aeromedicalmissions, weather reconnaissance, aerial spray missions, firefighting duties, and natural disaster relief.

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